100 stories: Davi Ramos
As part of our centenary year, we are featuring 100 stories that make up The Royal Ballet School’s past, present and future. Today, we share the story of alum, Davi Ramos, Senior Artist with Australian Ballet.
Davi Ramos was born in the Vidigal favela of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He discovered his passion for ballet at age 13 when his capoeira teacher encouraged his mother to take him to ballet class. Ramos trained at Lyceu Escola de Dança with Lorena Boaventura. He received a scholarship to The Royal Ballet School after competing in the 2016 Prix de Lausanne. Whilst at the School, he was a recipient of the 2017 Ballet Association Awards and performed roles in Swan Lake, Paquita and Ashley Page’s Untied, Undone.
Coming from Brazil without understanding any English and all of a sudden having to learn a new language was tough because Portuguese is completely different, it took about six months so I could have a conversation, then everything started to feel more like home. The staff and the students were super kind and warm so it felt like home after all.
My best memories are of the teachers, I just feel very special to have been taught by them and grateful for all the knowledge they passed on to me. I have to say that I appreciated so much all their hard work and the dedication they had for this art form. Big thank you to you them! I am where I am because they helped me discover my talent and had belief in me.
Davi Ramos performing whilst he was a student in the School. Photography by ASH.
After graduating from the School in 2019, Ramos was awarded a contract with Dutch National Ballet Junior Company. He was promoted to the main company and then several times to Grand Sujet. Whilst there he performed Principal roles in The Sleeping Beauty, Raymonda, Giselle and Swan Lake. He also had the opportunity to perform in No Time Before Time by Ernst Meisner, Replay by Ted Brandsen and lead roles in George Balanchine’s Valse Fantasie, Hans van Manen’s Live and the new version of Prometheus created by Wubkje Kuindersma, Ernst Meisner and Remi Wörtmeyer.
Dutch National Ballet is one of the best companies in the world so I felt an honour to be part of such a great company. It was my dream to dance with them and it was much easier since the School taught the basics of living independently too. I was given incredible opportunities to perform principal roles with them.
Ramos began 2024 with a relocation to Australia to join The Australian Ballet as Soloist. He has since been promoted to Senior Artist and performed in Manon and William Forsythe’s Blake Works V (The Barre Project).
This year, Ramos is returning to perform in London as Associate Guest Artist with English National Ballet whilst continuing to perform with The Australian Ballet.
This is an amazing opportunity for my career and a chance to reconnect with European audiences and once again perform in London, where it all began! It has been a dream of mine to dance professionally in London after leaving The Royal Ballet School. I’ll be working with these two amazing companies over the next few seasons. I’m extremely grateful to my Director, David Hallberg, for supporting this new chapter and for all the guidance, support, and encouragement.
Watch our full interview with Ramos below.
